


Guide Us as We Onward Go (That Good Ol' Baylor Line)

by myglassesaredirty



Category: Psych
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baylor University, College, F/M, THAT is a story in and of itself, also, and by life experiences i mean a general basis, and i'm definitely not studying, and that means that i was able to bs it into making sense, at least for a FAT minute, based on life experiences, but!!! i am a Good Writer, i hope you guys recognize the fact that i have an english test tomorrow, i started this fic and was writing for a long time and then, if anyone wants to know the story of how i actually got injured hmu i love to tell it, my last psych fic, so by the time i resumed i had a crush on a different guy, why would any of you think i have a boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 06:55:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20738060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/pseuds/myglassesaredirty
Summary: Madeleine Baker is at her first year of college. To be more specific, she's at Baylor University, and life is suddenly very different than it was in high school. There are a lot of guys here. School is actually somewhat difficult. She doesn't quite understand the concept of free time anymore.And, of course, there's a boy with a brilliant smile who makes her feel like she's important.





	Guide Us as We Onward Go (That Good Ol' Baylor Line)

**Author's Note:**

> Many different things:  
1) this is my last Psych fic for a while since I'm extremely underappreciated, except when I write either Shules or Juliet or Carlowe, and I'm a little tired of it. I enjoyed writing Madry until I got nothing out of it. Besides, I've switched fandoms and I legitimately am low on free time, considering that I'm taking 16 hours.  
2) I'm sick of every college au being set at a big name school, so I went with my brother's alma mater. He went to Baylor for four years. I think I know things about Baylor now.  
3) While these are based off my life experiences, a lot of these are fudged for fiction

The first time she saw him, they were in biology class. She sat closer to the front, though still technically part of the middle, and she pulled her computer onto her desk – not looking to open it until class began, but wanting to be prepared. No one sitting next to her was too interested in talking, but the cute guy behind her babbled on to the other guys in his row. She didn’t catch much of the conversation, too focused on working up the courage to turn around and talk to him. She caught something about football.

If Maddy had to guess, she would imagine that the cute guy behind her didn’t take much notice of her. Not because she was invisible, though she could see how that would be a factor (so many girls in her dorm already had a posse of friends, and she had managed to attain two), but because he was so invested in maintaining a conversation. Part of her wondered if he even had a phone. Another part of her wondered how he could be so engaging.

She heard him mention that he was a university scholar. Upon hearing this – while drinking from her water bottle – she choked on her drink and started coughing. The other kids on her row raised an eyebrow at her, and she briefly – though only for a moment – heard the guy behind her stop talking. When it looked like she was going to be okay, he said, “Anyways, I think my focus as a UScholar is going to be biomedical engineering.”

So, in short, she found out that he was smart-smart.

To be fair, the requirement to get into Baylor is relatively high, but to be part of the USchol program, one has to be brilliant. To turn your focus to such a demanding field, like  _ biomedical engineering, _ is downright insane. If she were a betting woman, she would bet that not only was he crazy smart, he also was hella involved in extracurricular activities, sports, volunteer work, and quite possibly philanthropy.

Maddy twisted in her chair to get a better look at him, hoping that she would gain the courage to talk to him. However, when his eyes snapped to hers, and when he grinned at her, like she was important and visible and interesting, she swallowed hard and managed a small smile in return. Her words were lost.

And, with that, class began.

*

The first time she talked to him, she was trying to find her way to Penland Dining Hall after a mandatory Title IX meeting for all new students, freshmen and transfers alike. She was supposed to meet up with Sharon and Melissa at Penland, or at least try and catch up with them at the dorm, but she couldn’t find her way, the sun was setting, and she just knew that she was standing at the edge of campus and didn’t know which way was up.

So, naturally, Maddy followed the crowd of freshmen leaving the Baylor Science Building. Except the group split into two, and she had no idea which one to follow.

The cute guy she had seen earlier that day was close to her, so she licked her lips, took a deep breath, and twisted her fingers into the ugly lime green shirt she had been required to wear. “Do you know which way Penland is?” she asked, wincing at her hoarse voice. Which. Losing her voice was weird, because she hadn’t been screaming for a while, and she’s normally a talkative person, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t used it for a long time.

The cute guy looked around the parking lot and nodded. “Yeah, it’s up ahead.” He fell into step next to her, and they walked in silence for exactly five steps. He cleared his throat. “So, what floor are you on?”

Maddy raised her eyebrows. “Oh, no, I’m not in Penland. I’m in Collins, but I’m meeting friends  _ in _ Penland’s dining hall, so…” she nodded once.

The cute guy pursed his lips and nodded. “Ah.”

She licked her lips again. “I’m assuming you live in Penland?”

“That I do.” He chuckled to himself and lifted two fingers into the air. “Second floor.”

She whistled lowly. “Oh, you just missed the dirty third. I’ve heard stories.”

He laughed again. “I’m Henry, by the way.”

She shook his hand. “Maddy.”

“What’s your major?” Instead of walking on the rest of the pavement, he started pushing to his left, aiming for the patches of grass, and she followed his lead.

“I’m a psych major. What about you?”  _ Oh fuck oh shit I know exactly what his major is fuck fuck fuck abort mission abort mission fuck me in the ass with a bull-headed cactus I– _

“I’m a University Scholar. I want my focus to be biomedical engineering.”

“So…” Maddy tripped over a tuft of grass, and Henry reached to catch her. His hand wrapped around her forearm, and she slowly straightened up and nodded at him. “I’m fine, yeah, sorry. Um,” she tossed her hair over her shoulder, “what do you do with biomedical engineering? I’m not familiar with what it is.”

Henry’s eyes lit up. “Oh, no, that’s fine! Um, what I want to do with biomedical engineering is assist in the making of machines that 3-D print biological organs.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Like, have you ever watched  _ The Good Doctor?” _ When she nodded, he continued. “Well, remember that episode where they 3-D printed a femur with titanium? I want to do that, but create functioning hearts, livers, kidneys, the like.”

A few students squeezed past them. Henry turned onto the sidewalk, and she followed him. As of now, she was more interested in maintaining this conversation with him than catching up with her friends. The dorm was a thing. She’d catch them later.

“So does that mean that there’s a higher chance of a person’s body accepting the organ?”

Henry shrugged. “It depends. Right now, replacing bones with 3-D prints is working well, but replacing a lacking kidney or liver or something of the sort needs compatibility, and there will need to be advancements made within the medical community itself. But, yeah, that’s the idea: compatibility increases.”

Maddy grinned, her nose wrinkling in the process. “That’s so cool! You’re like, saving lives, but without all the blood and guts and stuff.”

He laughed. “In theory, yeah, but I’m dealing with 3-D models of guts still.” The air hangs above them, sticking to their necks, and Maddy was not too sure that it was just the humidity of Waco, Texas. “So, what do you want to do as a psychologist?”

She took a deep breath and trained her eyes to the ground. “Me, personally, I want to be a forensic psychologist. So, like, working with either police stations or government organizations, I don’t really have a preference…”

He bumped his shoulder into hers. “Bet. Which would you prefer to do, if you got the opportunity to choose?”

Maddy winced, a smile creeping onto her lips. “Well…” She tilted her head to the side and studied him. He was confident in his own body, evident by the way he held his shoulders, but he wasn’t cocky, not arrogant. “Have you ever seen the show  _ Bones?” _

He shook his head. “Nope, never.”

Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God, you have to see it. It’s such a good show.” She cleared her throat and twisted the ring on her index finger. “Well, one of the main characters is a psychologist for the FBI, and he’s like, my favorite character of all time and one of the reasons I want to be a psychologist, so I would really,  _ really _ love to be a forensic psychologist for the FBI.”

They hurried up the steps into Penland dining hall, and Maddy vaguely recalled trying to catch up with her friends, but based on the sheer amount of people gathered in the dining hall, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Best to just stay with Henry for the time being. He pulled open the door for her and waited until she slipped inside to follow after her.

“So, what do you need to do as a psych major? Internships, certain psych courses?”

Maddy pulled her ID card out of her pocket and passed it to the cashier. Once she was swiped in, she stepped aside and waited for Henry to follow. Once he thanked the cashier and tucked his ID back into his wallet, she took off for the drink station. “Well, I have to take intro to psych and intro to neuroscience, which I’m in both this semester –” At Henry’s raised eyebrows, she laughed. “Yeah, I’m taking 18 hours, lowkey am drowning in a pool of my own making, but I love it.”

He laughed, grabbed a cup, and filled it with water. “Okay, that’s cool. Anything else?”

“There’s stats, but not the normal stats class I’m assuming you would have to take, but one specific to the psychology degree plan. Then I have to take a mental health class, experimental psych with lab, and social and developmental psychology.”

They stood in the middle of the dining hall, each holding a cup of water in one hand, their phones and IDs tucked into their pockets, looking around aimlessly. Henry cleared his throat. “I don’t know if you’re meeting up with friends or something, or what you want to eat…”

Her heart was pounding. Was that normal? She knew a little about anxiety, and she couldn’t tell if this was true anxiety or if she was just being stupid. Probably both. “Oh, no, this pizza actually looks really good.” Though, if she were to be completely honest, she had had that pizza before and it left little to be desired. Either way, food was food, and she wanted to keep the conversation going, so she grabbed a slice of pepperoni, he grabbed a slice of cheese, and they found an unoccupied booth-table combination for two.

People filtered out around them, students sitting down and rising as they finished their dinner, voices reached crescendos and died to a whisper, but Maddy noticed none of that. In knowing Melissa and Sharon, even just for a couple of days, she had deep conversations, conversations that filled a part of her that felt like it was missing, conversations that challenged her, but none felt like the conversation she had with Henry that night. Every time he laughed and every time he got excited, he would push both hands through his hair and lean forward to further explain the details of rock climbing, why  _ Lord of the Rings _ was better than  _ Narnia _ – a decision with which she completely disagreed –, and what life was like in Santa Barbara. He told her about surfing, and he made her feel like she was the only person who mattered to him.

In turn, she told him about being a competitive swimmer, about the dusty dryness of Oklahoma and the accompanying tornados, and studies of ADHD and the new discoveries about manifestations among teenagers and girls. She noticed no one but him. Her eyes were for him, and maybe it was cheesy, but she barely noticed the fluctuation in college students, and she could have stayed there for another hour.

Alas, there was class the next day, and they all had to study. Henry held up his phone, typing her instagram handle into the search bar, and hooked his thumb to the door. “Listen, I’ve gotta get going, but it was really nice getting to talk to you.”

Maddy nodded and stood up. Upon remembering the long-set sun and the scandal that had torn across Baylor, she winced to herself. “I– I know this is a really awkward question, since I just met you, but would you mind walking me back to Collins? I don’t want to walk back in the dark. You know, higher chances of something bad happening and all.”

Henry furrowed his brow and placed his cup and plate on the tray. “Yeah, of course! It’s always better to be safe than sorry.” He stepped aside and waited for her to lead them out of the dining hall. “But, uh, you’ll have to show me where Collins is because I have no clue. It’s an all-girls dorm and all.”

Maddy chuckled to herself. “No, it’s fine. Basically, you walk past the sub, reach the parking lot in front of Pat Neff, and just keep going straight until you reach the crosswalk. I can take it from there.”

Henry whistled lowly and pushed open the dining hall door, letting Maddy take the first step into the muggy humidity of Waco. “Oh, no. I’m your bodyguard now. I’m walking with you until I see you get into your dorm all safe and sound, and then I’ll make my way back here.”

*

In short, Maddy had never crushed on a guy like she crushed on Henry. In fact, she had never had a conversation with any guy – not even the ones she’d known her entire life – like the one she had with Henry. Part of that could be chalked up to who Henry was as a person, someone who could make friends with one of the squirrels on campus, but part of that, she thought, had to do with the fact that Henry was a special guy. She couldn’t hold a conversation like that with just anyone, and that was important to her.

Maddy’s roommate, Karen Dunlap, suggested that she ask Henry for bouldering lessons. Maddy flushed bright red, pulled back her covers, and said she would think about it.

Which she did. She thought about it a lot.

When she finally made her way to McLane Stadium, she was surprised by two things: 1) her reaction to the humidity, she honestly should not be about to pass out after this long, and 2) she could not find any of her friends in the sheer mass of yellow jerseys. She did, however, see Henry, and not knowing what else to do, she called his name and jogged to catch up to him.

He pressed a cold water bottle to the back of his neck. “Hey, Mad, how are you?”

“I’m…hot,” she said, opting for true honesty instead of the generic response. “What was your first week like?”

This time, their conversation was stilted, explained by Henry being on a mission to run the Baylor flags at this game, but she bit her lip, squared her shoulders, and plowed on ahead before she could lose her nerve. “Do– do you think you could teach me how to boulder?”

Henry looked up, unscrewing the bottle cap. “Yeah, of course! The SLC is open all the time, and if I’m not there, I’m probably dead or in class, so just swing by whenever you feel like it. Though,” he tilted his water bottle and poured some water into his mouth, “you will need to go through an orientation before you can boulder or climb, just on the off chance you haven’t done it yet.” At her look of concern, he screwed his water bottle closed and waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s really easy, and I’m not saying that because I know how to rock climb. I’m saying that because they basically just point to various areas of the rock and say, ‘don’t die,’ and that’s it.”

She side-eyed him. “Okay…”

He squinted at her. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright, Mad? You look…both pale and really red, I don’t think that’s a good thing.”

She licked her lips. They were dry. Her stomach felt bloated, though she hadn’t eaten anything out of the ordinary today – cereal for breakfast, a ham sandwich for lunch, and water in between. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she shrugged. “I think I’m fine. It’s probably just the heat getting to me. I haven’t been in this much direct sunlight this entire time.”

Henry twisted his lips, unconvinced that she was alright, but he didn’t press any further, instead slipping underneath a tent. Barbeque smoke flared into the air and stung Maddy’s eyes, but again, she didn’t know anybody, and she was going to be standing in the heat whether she went to the Baylor line or whether she stayed with Henry. She turned her head and tried to blink away the tears while Henry grabbed a hot dog – he had wanted a burger, but upon grabbing a hot dog, he just shrugged and said, “Food is food” – and grabbed potato chips.

She needed a Gatorade in her system, or she was going to pass the fuck out. They didn’t, unfortunately, have green Gatorade, so she stuck her hand into the ice cold water and pulled out the light blue. Red made her break out in acne.

Henry got himself another water bottle, now balancing three in his hand, and nodded to a table, where a cluster of freshmen in line jerseys sat, chattering away. Once they sat down, he slid her one of the water bottles and prepped his hot dog for eating. “You should drink that water between your Gatorade,” he said quietly, taking a massive bite out of his food.

Maddy blinked. “O-okay?”

She vaguely recalled having a conversation with one of Henry’s endless number of friends, but she was more concerned about her dehydration, about the fact that all she really wanted to do was throw up. She knew she was sweating, and she knew she had never sweat so much in the entire course of her life, but she also felt suspiciously cold. Sweat gathered at the nape of her neck, but her hair was too short for her to do anything about it. She forced a smile whenever Henry turned his attention to her, but what she really wanted was to go back to her dorm, curl into a ball, and wait for the heat exhaustion to pass.

At the recommendation of someone who had come before her, Maddy finished her Gatorade, got through half of her water bottle, and pushed away from the table. “I’ve got to get going,” she said, hooking a thumb in the direction of the line tent. She swayed on her feet, and Henry’s eyes caught the way she gripped the table, the way she looked like she couldn’t stand straight.

In short: she was probably going to be kicked out of the line for being drunk even though she was as sober as a duck in spring.

Henry leaned back in his chair. “Maddy, are you sure you’re alright?”

She forced a smile. “I’m just peachy, Henry. Why do you ask?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “The heat’s getting to everyone. I was just wondering how you’re taking it.”

_ I honestly am concerned that I am going to die, but that doesn’t matter right now. _ Waving a hand, she backed up, her brain feeling like it was on fire, and said, “It’s gross, but I’m used to heat. I grew up in Oklahoma!”

“If you say so…” He sighed, chugged the rest of his water, and tossed it in the trash can. “I’m coming with you, I don’t trust that you’re alright.”

Normally, she would admonish him, no matter how cute he was, but when she stumbled on even ground, he grabbed her elbow, and she figured it was probably best that he was with her. She winced. “I’m sorry to take you away from your friends.”

He shook his head. “Hey, don’t worry about it.” His hand still on her elbow, he gently guided her to the right side of the bridge, so as not to get in the way of freshmen taking pictures. “I came here to run the line, and by God, I’m going to do it.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I know school is a thing and everyone’s figuring out how to structure their time, but have you even considered watching  _ Bones _ yet?”

When they arrived at the ticket line, he let go of her arm. “What’s it even about?”

Maddy twisted her lips and tried to go through the security check, but the lady redirected her upon seeing her with a water bottle. Henry took it, chugged the rest of it, and pulled her along with him in the line. After grabbing her phone and ID, she tucked both in her pocket and stood under the tent. People pressed into her from every side. “It’s about this anthropologist and this FBI agent who solve cases together, but it’s not a typical crime show. They only solve crimes involving a whole lot of murder, and they solve the crimes with just bones. It’s really good.”

“I’ll have to give it a look.”

Now, the thing about her living in Oklahoma is that she learned how to live in extreme heat. It was part of her DNA to deal with unforgiving and sweltering sunlight. Even cloudy days hardly gave her a relief from the 100º weather. It just made everything more humid, and on this, the first football game of the season, Maddy was shocked to learn how close she was to heat stroke. Her line jersey stuck to her back, and even though she regretted not wearing an undershirt earlier, she found that decision to be the wisest she made today. Her hair was too short to put up, so sweat gathered on her neck, and her shins were slick with sweat.

To think that there were still two more hours before they could run the line.

At least Henry was there with her.

*

Time management was the hardest adjustment for her, but she found a way to study for all of her classes, have fun, eat, and work out on a fairly consistent basis. At first, she tried to structure her schedule so that she could see Henry when she went to the SLC to work out, but then Spanish threw a wrench in her plans.

Look: languages were her thing. She was certifiably fluent in three foreign languages already (Greek, French, and German) as a result of growing up as an Army brat until her father retired, but Spanish was hard. It took French and made it make sense, and she wasn’t the biggest fan.

In short, she stopped trying to run into Henry at the rock climbing area, but that didn’t mean she didn’t see him with any sort of frequency.

Henry was fun to be around, when Maddy wasn’t so focused on how attractive he was or trying to get him to notice her (not that he ever missed her in a crowd). He taught her how to climb certain routes, and when she got fed up with climbing routes, he introduced her to this game that he called “climbing add-on.” It built her endurance, tested her strength, and helped her realize her perfect ability for flexibility. Unfortunately, however, Henry was still taller than her, and that translated to her losing every single one of these rounds.

She was not going to lose this round if her life depended on it.

Henry was at the top, in the middle of the whole wall. They had decided to go all the way around the bouldering wall, with some difficulty, as some students wanted to be rule-followers and follow specific routes. Part of the wall jutted out, complete with five or six holds, most of which were difficult to hold onto. Only the tips of his toes made contact with any sort of foothold, and his right hand was gripping another hold with two fingers. His left hand, however, was pressed flat against the wall, no hold involved whatsoever.

She had to do it. She had to kill him.

Henry glanced down at her. “So you’ve got it?”

Maddy pursed her lips and nodded. “I know how to get to where you are, but I don’t know if I’ve got it. Just get down so I can try.”

He nodded and dropped down from the wall, rolling into a somersault when he hit the pads. She shook her head.

“You’re supposed –” she got into the starting position and started nimbly climbing up the wall “– to climb down, not drop.”

He shrugged and watched her. “Remember that it’s blue and yellow for the footholds.”

“I’ve got it.”

When she mentioned that she was flexible, she meant it. She was extremely flexible. However, that flexibility did not extend to getting her any points in this game whatsoever. The only way she could reach that handhold was to jump, and she damn well was going to reach it before Henry took pity on her and changed the move to be easier for her. Gritting her teeth, she prepared to jump to the hold.

Just as she did, she heard Henry gasp behind her. “No, Maddy, don’t –”

Her fingers tried to clutch the hold, but they slipped, and in a desperate attempt to stop her fall, she tried to grab onto the wall. Her left wrist fell harshly against one of the bigger holds, her side scraped against the wall, and she fell onto her side, her left wrist trapped underneath the weight of her body.

There was so much pain. She was in so much pain.

Henry knelt next to her, his hands hovering over her body. “O-okay, just– I’ll call a friend, ask to borrow his car. You’re– you’re going to be okay, Maddy, I promise.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “It hurts.”

He gently rolled her onto her back, and his eyes bugged when he saw how much her wrist had swelled in the sixty seconds since she had fallen. It was red and purple and bruised, and her wrist was the size of her bicep.

He licked his lips. “I know. I know it hurts. But help is on the way, okay? Help is on the way.”

*

“You do realize that I don’t really understand bio, right? Talk to me like I’m six.”

Henry rolled his eyes and adjusted his camera. “Listen, I’m not actually a psychologist, but I know you well enough to know that you’re not bad at bio, it just requires a lot more effort than you’re used to giving. As long as you put in that effort, you’ll be fine. I’ll explain what you don’t understand, but I don’t think you are as bad as you make yourself out to be.”

Maddy twisted her lips and tugged on her OKC Swim shirt. “I hate that you’re accurate.”

Henry laughed and leaned against his bed frame. “Okay, while you flip through and try to figure out the question you want to ask, I’ve got some news for you.”

She pressed her lips tightly together and skimmed the page, trying to find the thing that really confused her. “Oh?” Her heart pounded in her chest. Henry was an attractive guy, a genuinely nice guy, and it was not at all unbelievable that he could have a girlfriend. She wasn’t the jealous type, but she didn’t want to have to plaster a fake smile on and congratulate him.

“I finished the first chapter of my book. I thought you’d be proud.”

The paper fell from her fingers, and she looked up sharply. “That’s great! Will I ever be able to read it?”

Henry pursed his lips and hummed. “Maybe.”

“I like to imagine that I’m one of your closest friends, especially because you drove me all the way to the hospital and let me nearly break your hand with my good one while the doctor set the bone. I think I deserve to read this chapter before it’s published.”

Henry’s eyebrows shot into his forehead. “Are you kidding me? If anything,  _ I _ should be able to withhold this chapter as long as I want  _ because _ you did that to my hand!” He glanced at his door when Brett walked inside and turned back to his screen. “And speaking of your injury, I hope you’re not planning on going back to bouldering once you get that cast off.”

“I’m fine!”

“You hit your head!”

She opened her mouth and flopped around for a response. “On– on the  _ mat, _ I’m absolutely okay!”

“YOUR WRIST IS IN A CAST!”

“I’m fine!”

He leaned forward, balancing his phone on his leg. Steepling his fingers together, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Mad, I’m telling you, no one breaks their wrist on either the bouldering or climbing wall. It just doesn’t happen. You’re not allowed to go back again.”

“I can if I want to.”

Now to his credit, Maddy had never seen Henry get angry before. There was really no reason that he had to get angry before, but for the first time since she got to know him, she saw his eyes flash.

“Maddy, I’m not kidding around. You got hurt, and you were hurt badly. Don’t get back on that wall just to prove a point.”

She licked her lips and shut her biology textbook. This seemed a bit more pressing. “I’m not saying that just to prove a point. I think rock climbing and bouldering is fun. When you say things like that, it makes me feel like it’s completely unsafe, and that’s…not a fun experience.”

Henry pinches the bridge of his nose. “Maddy, I just don’t want to see you get hurt again. I know you were the one feeling that pain, but God…I was scared for you. I saw you fall. I don’t want that happening again.”

Maddy flushed bright pink. “Are you going soft on me?”

He chuckled once. “I guess I am. But, please, Mad, give yourself a break, okay? Slowly build your arm strength back.”

She sighed deeply. “Fine. Now, can you please explain these super intense Punnett Squares to me?”

*

Ever since she had a crisis of depression, Henry suggested she just take one purposeless walk a day. No phone, no earbuds, nothing except nature and her surroundings. Once winter came around, however, she had a much more difficult time of getting out, considering, you know the fact that it got dark much earlier. Once the sun started setting way too early, Henry decided that her walks were no longer going to be alone.

He always picked her up at her dorm, and they typically walked the perimeter of campus. Sometimes they’d joke and laugh (read: most of the time). She’d shove him, and he’d chuckle, tucking his chin into his scarf or coat. Unfortunately, it didn’t snow very often in Waco, so there were no resulting snowball fights.

Christmas on Fifth had taken place the night before, but the Christmas lights still hung around the rest of campus. Much of campus had quieted down, considering finals were in the near future, but with Henry being on her ass about time management, she had been preparing for literal weeks and she felt ready to take her finals on by storm.

Maddy looped her arm through Henry’s and leaned into his side as they walked by Moody Library. A lot of students were inside, “studying,” but it was quiet outside. Only those who had plans to go to Moody were walking around Fountain Mall.

Henry smiled gently at her and led her back around to the other side of Fountain Mall. Before they got halfway down the sidewalk, he stopped and looked up into the sky, his eyes twinkling as much as the stars themselves.

Maddy wrinkled her nose. “What is it?”

He sniffled and glanced down at her. “You’re amazing.”

She bit her lip and looked away. “And what makes you say that?”

Henry’s smile grew. “You’re brilliant, and you’re funny, and you’re creative. You’re kind and helpful, and you have a heart of gold. You refuse to change to be what people want you to be, and you’re unapologetically yourself in a world where no one knows what being themselves means. And when you do change, it’s not because other people want you to change, but because you do. You fight to be the best you can be, but you take a break when you need to take a break, and God, you’re amazing.”

“Is it just the Christmas spirit doing it to you?”

Henry chuckled. “I talked with Brett and Jack. And Jared Jason, your youth-minister-turned-councilman. He’s perceptive, I’ve gotta give him that.”

Maddy’s eyes twinkled, and she rocked onto the balls of her feet. No matter how much she stood on her tiptoes, she was still shorter than Henry. “And what did he tell you?”

Henry pulled his hand out of his pocket and cupped Maddy’s cheek. “To stop lying to myself. I have feelings for you, Maddy, and I can’t ignore them. They’re too strong.”

She took a shaky breath. “I- I don’t know what to say. Other than I’ve been doing the same thing you have, I’m just way worse at lying, to myself or anyone else.”

He huffed out a laugh, causing a cloud of white smoke to puff from his mouth. “May I kiss you?”

She nodded. “Yes.” A grin broke out across her face. “You may.”

He schooled the smile away from his face and bent down, gently pressing his lips to hers.

As they kissed, snow started to fall around them.

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below or go to my tumblr, @ my-glasses-are-dirty, and tell me what you think!


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